North Carolina, Duke Battling at Top of Recruiting Rankings Again

SI All-American looked at North Carolina and Duke’s 2020 recruiting classes, currently ranked No. 3 and No. 2 in the nation, respectively, to see how close they were to each other.

The answer is, closer than they’ve been in more than a decade. When UNC and Duke meet on the court, it’s usually with both teams near the top of the sport. Carolina and Duke have played with both teams in the top 10 on 11 occasions since 2008, and five times, both teams were in the top five. The recruiting battles, however, have rarely seen both teams at the top of the game at the same time.

The top-five rankings for this year are based on SI All-American’s recruiting rankings, but, to look back in time, we decided to use the 247Sports class rankings, which have been around since close to the turn of the millennium.

Duke has dominated the recruiting game during the one-and-done era. Posting a top three class for each of the past seven seasons and top 10 for the last eight. With UNC battling the cloud of possible NCAA sanctions for the paper-class scandal, Roy Williams’ recruiting class ranking fell as low as No. 70 in 2015, and this is UNC’s first top-five class since 2012.

During the recent era of Duke superiority on the recruiting trail, Coach Mike Krzyzewski has beaten Williams for several top-shelf recruits in head-to-head battles, including Harry Giles, Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson.

That was the last time UNC topped Duke in the class rankings. While the Tar Heels were No. 5, Duke took a one-year hiatus from the one-and-dones and finished at No. 41, bringing in Rasheed Sulaimon and Amile Jefferson, two players who—in the style of a Roy Williams class—were headed for four-year careers at Duke—until Sulaimon was dismissed in 2015 and Jefferson suffered an injury that gave him a fifth year with the Blue Devils.

Last year was Williams’ first top-10 since 2014, but there was a day when the Tar Heels were the team to beat in recruiting battles in North Carolina. UNC topped Duke in the class rankings in four of five seasons from 2008 to 2012.

The last time Carolina and Duke were back-to-back in the rankings before this season was back in 2008, when UNC’s class of Tyler Zeller, Ed Davis, Larry Drew and Justin Watts was No. 13 and Duke’s Miles Plumlee, Elliot Williams and Olek Czyz was 14.

The last time both teams were in the top five was in 2006 when UNC (Brandan Wright, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Alex Stepheson, Deon Thompson and William Graves) was No. 1 and Duke (Gerald Henderson, Lance Thomas, Brian Zoubek, Jon Scheyer) was No. 5.